A step-by-step plan for raising bees at home for beginning beekeepers. Keeping bees for beginners How to start keeping bees

Beekeeping for beginner beekeepers is a very exciting and rewarding activity. Only people who are indifferent to bees and lazy, as well as those who are allergic to bee products and poison, are disappointed in this matter.

If you have got bees or just want to get started with them, you should study the biological characteristics of insects. A novice beekeeper needs to know their life, breeding methods, basics of care and maintenance down to the smallest detail. Advice and lessons from professionals in our video apiary can help with this. The second prerequisite is to love your winged workers, because they do not like careless owners. Moreover, insects themselves conduct a “careful selection”, becoming attached only to affectionate, kind and attentive people.

The main qualities of a successful beekeeper are hard work, perseverance and responsibility. For these qualities, the beekeeper will always be generously paid.

How to become a beekeeper? Of course, to start an apiary from scratch, you will need bees. And not just a dozen, but entire families. Today, there are two ways to acquire insects: either catch a stray swarm and start breeding them, or buy them. For beginners, you will need several bee colonies in order to obtain honey in the first year of activity and expand the farm.

Families can be purchased from amateur beekeepers or from state nurseries that have a veterinary certificate. But it is advisable to take with you an experienced specialist who will help determine the quality of the combs and the strength of the families. Pay attention to the brood, because empty cells indicate old age of the queen or illness of the bees.

You need to buy bees of local breeds that are adapted to your climate and area.

It is recommended to purchase bees in early spring and summer, when families already have offspring of different ages: pupae, eggs, larvae. When purchasing in the spring, the beekeeper has the opportunity to gain growth in the first season, build new honeycombs, and renew the nest. Lessons from experienced beekeepers, training videos, as well as favorable conditions will help you get marketable honey in the first year. In the first half of summer, you can purchase a swarm weighing about two kilograms. During the bribe, such a swarm will be able to fully stock up on honey for the winter and rebuild a nest.

Beekeeping advises novice beekeepers, before keeping bees, to find out what varieties and breeds are common in the area where you live. Several of the most common breeds are bred in our country: Central Russian Forest, Ukrainian, Gray Caucasian and Italian. The Central Russian breed is considered our original domestic breed, which is ideal for northwestern apiaries. They are hardworking and low maintenance, although a bit aggressive.

Caucasian grays live preferably in the mountains, forests and valleys of the Caucasus and in the southern regions of the country. They are peaceful, calm, and have a long goiter. Ukrainian bees are close relatives of Caucasian bees. They are even more peaceful and calm, making them ideal for beginners. You can use them without any smoke at all and without a face mesh.

As for the Italian breed, these bees are hardworking, beautiful, calm, but are well suited only to warm regions. Southern women do not tolerate long winters well and suffer from intestinal diseases.

Bees live in hives. They should be comfortable for insects and easy to maintain for the beekeeper. Due to the fact that today it is increasingly difficult to find rich honey-bearing lands, it is important to select evidence that is convenient to transport to honey collection. There are several types: frame, artificial hollows, sides and logs. All hives with frames are either vertical or horizontal.

We've talked about evidence and bees, now we need to figure out how to organize an apiary. For a small number of insects, you can almost always find a collection site. And yet, to place an apiary, you need to choose a place taking into account honey and pollen-bearing vegetation. Of course, the apiary is located away from roads and highways, plants and factories. Honey-bearing lands should be located no further than 1.5-2 kilometers from the evidence.

It is important to protect the apiary from wind and scorching sun. The area around must be surrounded by hedges, for example, acacia, hawthorn. On personal plots, hives can be placed on the south side of the house in winter, and in the summer - to the southeast. Open or highly elevated areas, as well as lowlands, are not suitable for placing houses. You cannot place hives “on the flight path” of other bees, or if the bees’ path is crossed by a highway or other unwanted obstacles.

The evidence itself should be placed on stands and painted in different colors so that the bees can easily distinguish their home from someone else’s. It is advisable to place them at a distance of three to four meters in a checkerboard pattern. You can also place evidence in the attics of houses, pavilions, sheds or barns. This further protects families and saves space.

Bees reproduce in two ways: by reproducing new individuals and by swarming. In the first method, insects reproduce sexually when the queen mates with drones. The second method, swarming, is associated with the fact that intensive egg laying begins in a strong family. It is better to breed bees by forming layering.

It's no secret that bees live in nests made of honeycombs, where they raise their offspring and store their food supplies. Therefore, beekeeping implies the presence of evidence and frames for honeycombs. A normal nest has a vertical arrangement of honeycombs, with brood (eggs, larvae, pupae) in the middle and food on the sides.

You need to care for bees in accordance with the time of year and season. Proper care at home includes cleaning evidence, disinfecting, preparing frames, preventing and treating bees, and preparing for wintering.

In order for the apiary to be successful, you need to have all the necessary equipment. The first step is to purchase a suit and protective net, a smoker, an apiary chisel, a brush for cleaning up evidence, and a canvas for inspecting bees. To obtain beekeeping products, you will need a honey extractor, a container for carrying honeycombs, and tools for opening honeycombs. You will also need knowledge on making evidence and frames. The basics and lessons from famous beekeepers on video will help with this.

Beekeeping for beginners is based on the advice and lessons of experienced professionals. Here are some basic basics of bee activity and care.

Keep only strong families in the apiary, systematically select parental pairs, increasing productivity.
Regularly update nesting combs and disinfect the apiary.
Always give the bees the right amount of food, do not starve them, which can lead to the loss of colonies.
Always monitor the temperature and humidity in the nest.
If the brood dies under normal conditions, the queen must be replaced.
Support the beneficial natural instincts of bees, which increases the strength of colonies.
A good beekeeper always thinks about winter in the summer and summer in the winter. For the warm weather, he has already prepared the frames for the honeycombs, repaired the evidence, and put the equipment and inventory in order.

In this video, an experienced beekeeper tells you where to start your apiary, what it means to care for bees, and many other useful lessons. There will be a lot of interesting things for those who decide to study bees.

Bee package: apiary necessity or relics of the past?

There are hobbies that, in addition to pleasure, can generate income. These include bee breeding, which does not require large financial expenses, labor and time.

However, in fact, without knowing the basic conditions for growing these hardworking insects, nothing will work. To organize your own apiary, you need to get acquainted with the principles of their behavior, the rules of breeding and care, and the procedure for carrying out work. To make a profit in the future, you will still have to invest serious funds in organizing the business: you will need special equipment to provide the bees with comfort.

In any business, it is worth being fully prepared to face unforeseen factors. That is why you should prepare not just one swarm at once, but several, in order to gradually increase your beekeeping farm later.

The optimal number to start a business is three bee colonies. However, over time, to transform a favorite hobby into a serious business and make a profit, it will take about 50 families, and each of them can have a different number - from 20 to one hundred thousand bees.

It will be interesting for a novice beekeeper to know that each swarm brings up to 20 kilograms of nectar during the day, which produces 10 kg of honey. It wouldn’t hurt to join a beekeepers’ association where there is an opportunity:

get qualified help;
tips on how to raise bees;
learn the subtleties and nuances of the craft;
acquire indispensable manuals and manuals.

Some newcomers to keeping bees at home are afraid of the threat of stings. In fact, insects cannot sting for a reason: after that, inevitable death awaits them. To avoid this, it is recommended to comply with certain conditions:

avoid impulsive energetic gestures;
do not make high-pitched sounds;
come to the apiary in clean, light-colored clothes;
strictly monitor the absence of foreign odors.

In addition, experienced beekeepers, in order to calm insects, use an additional device - a smoker. Gradually, the bees will begin to recognize their owner, who will be stung in isolated cases.

Specifics of beekeeping at home

Before starting a new business, the pioneer decides where to start. Having mastered the theory, the beginner moves on to the practical development of the basics of modern beekeeping. His initial actions should be:

in selecting a place for an apiary that meets the necessary conditions;
in the acquisition of beekeeping equipment;
in the selection of highly productive breeds suitable for the surrounding climatic conditions.

Breeding bees for beginners involves meeting some basic conditions. Necessary:

make sure the neighbors don't object;
organize an apiary away from the highway, noisy places (bees cannot tolerate loud sounds);
be sure to surround the apiary with a high fence;
place the hives at a distance of 50 meters from housing and 10 meters from the edge of the site;
choose an area surrounded by trees - this will avoid a lot of bee diseases;
place the apiary in a quiet, comfortable place, protected from the wind;
install a row of hives every 5-6 meters, and leave gaps between the rows of 4-5 meters;
turn the houses with a slight slope to the south for better illumination.

Places with high humidity or near industrial enterprises are unsuitable for locating an apiary - these factors can lead to frequent illness among bees. It is advisable if honey plants grow in the vicinity of the hives, but this is not necessary: the bees can be moved from time to time to more favorable places to collect nectar.

Log apiary

Modern beekeeping requires a large investment of time and attention for beginners. You can help minimize the problem using the deck method. Breeding bees in logs involves the least intrusion into the existence of insects, which have absolute independence. This is why this method is most suitable for beginners: all they have to do is collect honey.

The advantage of such an apiary is not only that it is economical, but also that the insects in them are healthier. In the deck, the bees arrange housing the way they want, they themselves determine the size of the honeycombs, which are often large and located next to each other. The number of inhabitants of such a hive is also often greater than that of a normal one. A novice beekeeper will have to deal with such hives only twice a year: in the fall, collect honey, and in the spring, restore order by replacing small black honeycombs in which young insects will not be able to develop normally. They begin to pump honey only a year after the bees move into the log. If you follow certain rules, the results can be impressive.

The advantage of breeding insects in special pavilions over placing them outdoors is the ability to maintain a favorable temperature in the hive, protected from the vagaries of the weather. A pavilion with wheels relieves the beekeeper of the problems of loading and unloading, provides mobility during delivery to fields with flowering plants and continuity in collecting honey throughout the spring.

The disadvantages of this method are frequent flights of bees into neighboring swarms, loss of queens and an increased threat of disease due to bee crowding.

The choice of bee breed depends on their productivity, endurance, peaceful nature, frost resistance and honey production. Insects accustomed to warmth will not take root in the northern regions. For many beekeepers, the ability of bees to extract honey from certain flowers is important. When purchasing, they also pay attention to their character: they try to choose the most peaceful, non-aggressive, and disease-resistant ones.

Many breeds have been created that meet these requirements. Recently, a new species of buckfast bees has appeared, which quickly gained recognition among amateur beekeepers. The insects turned out to be more resilient and profitable than planned. In appearance they resemble the Italian look.

Beekeepers prefer breeding buckfast bees due to many factors, for example, accelerated development compared to other types. Their significant advantage is their peaceful nature. These insects do not suffer from bad weather and adapt well to any conditions. The breed is characterized by high fertility of queens, which allows them to quickly increase the swarm and its productivity. Serious disadvantages of bees are the inability to tolerate low temperatures and the difficulty of queen reproduction.

Queen bee breeding technologies

The queen is considered the progenitor of a family of bees of one hive; her main task is the reproduction of the swarm. Other insects protect and look after her. Although she lives longer, beekeepers strive to replace her after two years with a young one. There are five methods of breeding females:

natural;
fistulous;
artificial;
by means of an insulator;

Cebro method

The natural method is considered the simplest, suitable for beginners. It consists of creating the prerequisites for bees to move into a swarm. Three frames with brood are placed in the house, closing the entrance and removing the frame. There, the laying of queen cells should occur, from which layering will later be formed. However, the method may not give any result. The quality of the swarm also cannot be guessed in advance.

With the artificial method, after identifying a strong family, the frame is taken along with the eggs and young bees. After making a hole at the top of the frame, it is placed in a colony without a queen. Literally after 3 days, uterine buds are formed.

If it is necessary to simultaneously breed several females, the third order is used, which consists in searching for a strong family and breeding new queens on its basis. In this case, the family is placed in an insulator containing two frames, and two more are added to them. One is intended for mature offspring, the next is for egg laying. To eliminate the possibility of a bee escaping, the structure should be covered with frames and placed in the hive among the frames with brood.

With the fistula method, three frames are used, to which worker bees are added. The uterus is replanted. The frame is placed back in the female's original home. After 3 days, the lining is checked and the fistulas are removed. After 7 days, it is necessary to cut out the queen cells and wait for ripening. The main advantage of the method is the ability to breed bees within the required time frame. The method is recognized by beekeepers and is systematically practiced to increase the number of individuals.

The Cebro technique is also popular among specialists. It consists of the following actions:

cutting the honeycombs installed on the roof of the hive;
choosing a piece with two-week-old larvae;
attaching the strips to the grafting frames from the bottom of the well;
installation of anti-swarm layering after the appearance of bees.

Specifics of insect breeding in multi-hull hives

Qualified specialists have long preferred to use such hives, which greatly facilitate their work. In addition, the technique makes it possible to expand families, raise young animals and overwinter field workers without significant damage. The owner will have to:

apply all your knowledge and diligence;
systematically regulate the way of life of insects;
look after them depending on the season;
move the frames in accordance with the honey harvest season and the activities of the bees.

The effectiveness of this type of bee colony breeding is determined by the arrangement and filling of the houses. The rhythmic functioning of the apiary is ensured by the presence of several sets of components that allow timely changing of frames, detaching hive parts and attaching superstructures to the boxes.

Key principles of keeping bees in the winter and spring seasons

To grow strong bee colonies capable of producing abundant nectar, it is necessary to carefully care for them in winter and spring. Such supervision involves regular monitoring of the temperature, the condition of the brood, the well-being of the queens and bees, and the number of dead animals. It is necessary to provide comfortable living conditions for insects in their home, adequate nutrition, and the ability to fly around to perform cleaning functions. In winter, you should definitely watch the hives, and such attention will give positive results.

Technology for keeping bees in beds

This method of breeding insects is practical, rational and simple. Its advantages are:

in ease of transportation;
in the absence of a regular need for special lifting of the bodies;
in the heat capacity of the design type;
in the additional possibilities of sun loungers, breed a nucleus;
in high egg production of queens;
the ability to support a large number of strong families;
in anticipation of anti-swarm measures (use of a special diaphragm to form layering).

Principles of breeding bees in the country

The optimal place for organizing an apiary is considered to be a summer house with a sufficient number of plantings of different crops that will ensure the production of high-quality honey. The best option would be to have an orchard at your dacha. It is advisable to place the hives in the shade of trees. In an open area, you can arrange shading using various devices to protect the bees from the heat.

Installing houses on the roof and barn allows you to create a shelter for wintering insects.

Keeping bees is a rather complex activity that requires serious preparation and the acquisition of the necessary equipment. For success, it is advisable to study the basics and consult with experienced specialists. Only after this should you decide whether to start an apiary.

Raising bees at home is a profitable and useful business. To do this, you need to purchase a plot of land; it is important to choose a convenient place for the apiary, so that there is a large number of honey plants nearby. For the business to be profitable, you must adhere to all the rules of beekeeping. With a properly installed apiary, you can get a strong working family. It is important to take into account the factors that will influence the full development of the apiary; also put together a detailed plan of where to start.

Features of breeding bees at home

The apiary should be located in a windless place, it should be surrounded by a large number of trees, this way insects can be protected from disease.
It is best to place the hive with a slope to the south, so the apiary will always be exposed to the sun's rays.
The apiary must be fenced; for this, fences are used, the optimal height is two meters.
The hives should be located as far as possible from roads; people should not constantly walk near the apiary.
The apiary should not be placed in a damp place in the lowlands, near various factories, this will lead to serious illness of the bees.

Bee breeding methods

Most often, bee breeding for beginners involves a selection of methods; you can use division and layering of bees. In order to get layering, you need to transfer the queen from one hive to another early in the spring; there should be a small amount of brood of different ages. After the queen is removed from insects, they can lay fistulous queen cells; after a while, the development of new queens can be noticed. After 12 days, you can take a mature queen cell and place it in a layer; it must be formed from a large number of frames, they are taken from the hive.

Breeding bees for beginners is a difficult task; it is often recommended to pay attention to the half-summer method, for this you need to divide the colony in half and place it in different hives. After installing them at a distance, some of the insects should end up in one hive, the other in the second. If there is no queen in the hive, you need to take care of a new one. It is best when the bees themselves raise the queen, so after flying around she will begin to lay a large number of eggs.

All bee breeding methods are taken into account - caring for insects in winter, breeding queens, maintaining honey flow, selecting certain breeds of families, keeping bees in different types of hives.

Climatic conditions play an important role; in some regions there are only 40 days left to grow a family, in others up to 100 days, on average the growth lasts about 70 days.

The beekeeper must take into account that if the bees have enough different food, pollen. It takes at least two weeks for a queen to lay eggs so that she can fully recover.

One method is rotational bee breeding, most often called 24-hour bee farming, which includes:

Active fight against the Varroa mite.
Tracking drone brood.
Care for insects throughout the year on a mesh tray.

Rotational breeding of bees helps protect insects from mites.

Features of breeding and keeping bees in pavilions

Honey plants often fade early, in this situation the bees cannot be left idle, they need to be moved to other places. Breeding and keeping bees is a difficult task. In this case, they came up with a special pavilion; if the hives are very bulky, they need to be replaced with plywood ones. Afterwards they are placed on a special pavilion with wheels. In order for the bees to fly out, it is necessary to provide entrances; it is important to paint the front wall of the pavilion in a different color, so that each family will know where exactly their home is located.

Don’t forget to leave some space in the pavilion for the beekeeper’s work. The structure must be insulated with glass wool, so the bee family will be preserved and develop for a long time.

The same amount of money is spent on the pavilions as on the apiary. If beekeeping is a business for you, then there is no need to worry, the costs will pay off after just two years. Up to 30 families can be stored in one pavilion.

Stationary pavilion in Germany

Some beekeepers say that much less money is spent on such pavilions than on a stationary apiary.

Keeping bees as a business necessarily involves making a list of what you will need to spend money on:

For the purchase of hives.
On purebred bees.
For special equipment, tools, costumes.

If everything goes well, after the first honey harvest your apiary will pay for itself, because 30 families produce at least 1000 kg of honey, which is an expensive product.

Queen bee breeding technology

Anyone who decides to start beekeeping asks the question where to start. Experienced beekeepers advise breeding queens, so the colonies will be strong and complete. It is necessary to breed queens in order to increase the strength of the bees and prevent them from dying in the winter. To start breeding queens, you need to adhere to the following rules:

Prepare special cells where eggs will be laid in the future.
If there is a need to use special feeding when there is no nectar.

It is necessary to breed queens only from quality parents so that the genetics are passed on to them. Please note that different families of bees can bring their own amount of honey, this is due to the fact that each of them has its own breed.

The queen of the Karnika bees is marked in green in the photo.

Beekeepers are convinced that the colony that actively works on the main honey brings a lot of nectar and survives in the winter. In this case, the queens do not need to be specially fed; they are quite fertile. In winter, the family is already preparing for honey collection; it can increase its strength on its own, and then it works perfectly and efficiently. Therefore, beekeepers advise that before breeding queens, you first need to select strong colonies of bees.

Features of bee breeding in multi-hull hives

If the family is strong, it is placed in two buildings. In the spring, the queens are moved up, it is warmer there, after it is filled with brood, the family increases, the bodies need to be swapped.

To the colonies that have already overwintered in one building, you need to add other bees and add another building, it should have a sufficient number of honeycombs with food.

Those colonies that were in multi-hull hives in winter need to be checked, and then begin to replace the foundation frames. After the housings have been swapped, you need to install a separation grid. It is mandatory in multi-hull hives; it can be used to distract bees from swarming.

Experienced beekeepers have proven that keeping bees in multi-hull hives significantly raises the energy level, resulting in much more brood.

Basic rules for breeding bees in winter and spring

In winter and spring, careful care is needed in order to grow strong bee colonies that will reward you with large amounts of nectar. Care in winter and early spring involves constant monitoring of the temperature in the hives, the condition of the brood, queens, the condition of the bees, and the amount of dead. It is important that the insects are comfortable in their housing and also have enough food.

Please note that insects must fly around so they can fully cleanse their intestines. In winter you need to constantly listen to the hives. Proper care gives positive results.

Technology of breeding bees in beds

Breeding insects in beds is convenient and easy. The following are the advantages of keeping bees in beds:

Convenient to transport.
There is no special need to constantly raise the body.
Heat-intensive type of device.
In addition to the family, in the beds you can additionally breed a nucleus.
Queens in beds are characterized by high egg production.
You can breed a large number of strong families.
Anti-swarm measures are also provided in beehives; a special diaphragm is used, behind which layers are formed.

Rules for breeding bees in the country

The best place for an apiary is a summer house; it should have a sufficient number of crops. The apiary at the dacha pleases not only with high-quality honey, but also with the vital energy provided by insects.

Apiary at the dacha

It’s especially good if you have a garden at your dacha; insects will always have somewhere to work. It is important to place the hives correctly; at the dacha, it is best to place them under trees, in the shade.

If you don’t have these, and you have placed the hives in your dacha, where there is open space, you need to provide them with shade yourself using mats and different types of plants. You can plant corn and sunflowers in your dacha, this way you can protect the bees from the heat.

Some beekeepers install an apiary on roofs, sheds, cut holes in the walls, and create a wooden corridor. This is how an omshanik will appear at the dacha. Please note that, despite all the positive aspects of an apiary in the country, you need to remember about the various diseases that bees often suffer from, so be sure to remember to adhere to all sanitary and hygienic standards when breeding in the country.

We can conclude that raising bees is very difficult, for this you need to carefully prepare, purchase everything you need, study books on beekeeping, you will need to take special training courses, and communicate with experienced beekeepers. There are now a sufficient number of educational videos on beekeeping; you need to watch them, learn the basics, and only then can you make a decision about maintaining an apiary.

In this article you will learn how to breed bees from scratch and what methods exist for breeding these beneficial insects.

How to raise bees from scratch

In order for the apiary to be profitable, it is necessary not only to follow all the rules of maintenance, but also to correctly select insects for further breeding. In addition, there are certain rules for breeding and breeding queens.

Where to begin

Bees for breeding can be purchased from a variety of places: from large specialized farms and from amateur beekeepers. When purchasing, be sure to check veterinary documents confirming the health of the insects. That is why it is better to buy insects on specialized farms, although non-specialized farms with apiaries also sell queens and families.

Note: A productive family, when purchased in the spring, should have 4-5 kg of food, and in the fall - more than 16, as well as at least 10-12 nesting combs.

Figure 1. Composition of a bee colony

It is better to purchase 2-3 families at once that have already survived the winter. In this case, in the new season it will be possible to obtain commercial honey from them;
It is best to make a purchase in early spring;
For beginners, to make a profit, it is enough to buy 20-50 families. You can make a profit from them by servicing the apiary yourself. Larger numbers require more time and skill to breed. As experience increases, the number of families in the apiary can be increased to 100-150 per person or 200-300 per two specialists.

To transport insects, you can use ready-made hives, special bags or cages. Transportation is best done in the evening or at night. Examples of transport cages are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Transport cages

The hive entrance is tightly closed and opened only after placement in a new apiary. If transportation is carried out in bags, be sure to check that each container contains about 1.5 kg of bees, a queen, four honeycombs and 3 kg of sealed honey. In summer you can also buy swarms in swarms. In this case, you must make sure that there is a queen in the swarm, since without her the insects will scatter.

What is needed to breed bees?

Reproduction occurs by laying eggs by the queen. Fertilized eggs produce new queens and workers, and unfertilized eggs produce drones, which are subsequently used for mating (Figure 3).

Note: Throughout the year, the number of insects constantly changes due to the death of old ones and the breeding of new individuals. Workers also sometimes lay eggs, but only dwarf drones hatch from them, which cannot mate.

Immediately after wintering, in approximately the first three weeks, the size of the family decreases, since the breeding of new individuals does not yet cover the death of old ones. In the future, the indicators are equalized and the population grows. As the number of young individuals increases, the productivity of the queen decreases and the growth of the young stops. Subsequently, the number of individuals continues to decline during wintering.

Figure 3. Reproduction of insects by eggs

The strength of the family can be assessed after wintering. If it occupies 8 frames (4 each with food and brood), the family is considered strong. Medium productive ones occupy approximately 5-7 frames, and weak ones - less than five.

Peculiarities

Under natural conditions, bees reproduce by swarming. This process begins after the accumulation of too many young individuals. The future swarm is formed by young workers who do not have enough work in the old hive. Examples of swarming are shown in Figure 4.

The swarming process goes like this:

In the second half of summer, bees fly out of the hive (from about 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.). The first to leave the hive are the scouts, who are looking for a place for a new family.
After this, some of the working insects fly out, followed by the queen, and lastly the remaining individuals.
The new swarm remains close to the mother hive for several days (for example, on a branch). At this time, the beekeeper needs to prepare a place for relocation. If this is not done, the insects will simply fly away.

As a rule, after the hatching of a new queen and the departure of the first swarm, the swarming process is repeated: the second one leaves the mother hive after 9 days, and the third after another 1-2 days. After this, all young queens in the mother hive are destroyed, since the worker insects leave only the largest individual.

Figure 4. Swarming process

To collect a new swarm you need a special device - a swarm. As a rule, a hook or rope is attached to the top for hanging the device. The swarm is hung under the collected insects and carefully shaken off inside. It is better to keep the collected swarm in the winter hut until the evening and transplant it into the hive at night. Inside the new hive, it is necessary to install frames with honeycombs and fodder honey. You can make a swivel yourself using the diagram and photo in Figure 5.

To move bees into the hive, a small gangway is placed next to the arrival board and the bees begin to pour out a little at a time. Sometimes insects are poured onto the frames from above, treating them with smoke. The top of the hive must be covered.

Note: Young individuals from a new swarm have an increased ability to collect honey, so they are often moved into an old hive, installing a new one next to it.

To limit natural swarming, colonies are propagated artificially. There are several methods of reproduction:

Using individual layering: To do this, several frames with brood and adults are removed from the hive and moved to a new empty hive, located slightly away from the old one. After the brood appears, the family is strengthened by introducing several new frames.
Half-flight division: in this case, the family is divided approximately in half. This method is only suitable for strong families that tolerate wintering well. Half of the frames with brood, food and insects are moved to the new hive and placed about half a meter away from the mother hive. Next, you need to determine which of the families has the queen. This is very simple to do: working individuals from the hive with the queen fussily run around the tray. After this, a young individual is added to the queenless colony.
Temporary layers: This method can be used only before the start of honey collection. New individuals are placed in the second part of the multi-hull hive, and when the first honey flow is completed, young and old individuals are combined, forming a stronger family.

Separate keeping of families can be practiced only if there is a good honey collection near the apiary. This will not only increase the survival rate of insects, but also improve the quality of commercial honey.

Preparation for breeding

The apiary should always have a supply of queens to replace old, sick or dead individuals. In addition, young queens are needed to expand the apiary and plant new families in the hives.

Figure 5. Diagram and photo examples for making a swivel

The highest quality and productive queens can be obtained from specialized farms that breed them. To transport or send queens by mail, special cages are used, in which not only the queen is placed, but also several accompanying bees and honey for feeding. After receiving a new individual, it must be immediately transplanted into the hive, since prolonged keeping in a cage will negatively affect its productivity.

Note: Breeding quality breeding queens is difficult. To do this, you need not only to carefully monitor the purity of the breed and brood, but also to create special families in which the queens will be bred. In small apiaries, queens can be bred on their own, using swarming or popular methods of artificial rearing.

For example, a productive family is allowed to release the first swarm. After this, the combs with the maturing larvae of the queens are cut out from the nest and they are rearranged into the cutouts of the combs of the colonies without queens. It is imperative to leave one queen cell in the mother’s nest to breed a young productive queen.

Figure 6. Artificial removal of the uterus

Another method can also be used: the queen is temporarily removed from the productive colony and placed in a nuc. After this, a honeycomb with eggs is selected and all cells are removed, except those from which the larvae have already hatched. The larvae are further thinned out (no more than two larvae should remain per three cells). Next, the frame is moved to the center of the nest, and the workers begin to place queen cells in them. When the time for the larvae to hatch approaches, the cells are cut off and transferred to queenless colonies, and the removed queen is returned to the hive. Figure 6 shows examples of artificial creation of queen cells for breeding productive queens.

The queens are hatched at the end of spring or early summer, when the bees are already stronger after wintering and the honey plants begin to bloom intensively.

Keeping bees for beginners: video

The video shows in detail the features of raising bees at home for beginners. With the help of this video you will be able to properly organize the process of caring for insects in the apiary.

Rotational beekeeping for beginners is considered one of the most effective technologies in beekeeping. This method is also called year-round maintenance.

The main goal of this breeding method is to maintain the health of bee colonies during the winter and prevent the development of diseases.

What is this method

Rotational breeding of bees involves the implementation of several mandatory activities. First, the beekeeper must regularly remove drone brood, since drones are most often affected by Varroa mites.

Secondly, their old colonies need to be constantly created with new ones with careful monitoring of insect health. In addition, the hives need to be regularly transported to apiaries where there are more honey plants. With the arrival of winter, it is necessary to provide insects with optimal wintering conditions in natural conditions.

By following these rules, breeding and caring for bees will continue without serious difficulties. The beekeeper will be able to constantly form new families that are resistant to diseases.

Peculiarities

If you are interested in how to start breeding bees from scratch using rotational technology, you should know what features and rules need to be taken into account.

Among the main stages of breeding using this method, I highlight t (Figure 7):

Spring honey collection It is better to carry out in apiaries with a large number of honey plants. Since bees are prone to swarming during this period, excess honey and young bees must be regularly removed from the hive.
Creation of new families involves moving young insects and queens to a special room. When all the insects have gathered around the queen, the colony is considered created and can be moved to the hive. After a week, the quality of the brood and the degree of acceptance of the queen are monitored. If she does not cope with her task, or the bees do not perceive her, the queen is replaced.
Monitoring family readiness for winter carried out by weighing. This allows you to determine whether the insects have enough honey to survive the winter.

Figure 7. Scheme of placement of insects in the hive during rotational breeding

Before the onset of winter, the maternal families are disbanded, and the queens are placed in separate cages to create an artificial swarm. Old families are united with new ones and preventive measures are carried out to prevent diseases.

Rotational bee breeding: video

You will find more information about rotational breeding in the video. It describes the main features of the method and the rules for carrying out the necessary activities in the apiary.

The two-queen breeding method is based on the biological ability of these insects to coexist peacefully and productively in one large colony with two queens (Figure 8).

Note: In this case, two dividing grids are installed in the hive, through which bees from one colony can contact the brood of another, and vice versa.

With such maintenance, the theft of honey is reduced, and the bees produce much more products per season, while maintaining the health of the brood, workers and queen.

Peculiarities

Many modern beekeepers prefer to use not the two-queen system itself throughout the year, but only some of its aspects. In particular, families are united immediately before the start of the honey harvest to increase the amount of production.

Figure 8. Drawing of a hive for two-queen housing

Among the positive features of the method it is worth highlighting:

Overwintering large joint families allows for more economical consumption of feed and maintains the health of insects;
Rearing brood requires less feed and labor;
Large families are less susceptible to disease and are highly productive and active.

However, keep in mind that using this method will require more bulky hives. In addition, insects often begin to swarm, so the beekeeper needs to carefully control this process.

Keeping bees is quite an interesting and even useful activity. But is it possible to master such a difficult science yourself? After all, the difficulty lies in the fact that obtaining theoretical knowledge will be closely intertwined with practical actions. So, beekeeping for beginners - where to start to master this useful activity?

Raising bees is quite an interesting and even useful activity.

You should learn to understand bees, their life, and family composition at least a little. It is necessary to know how bees spend their time, what they eat, and how long they live. It will not be superfluous to know where bees live, how their home is arranged, and what is essential in it. The theory of beekeeping should be studied in the winter so that by spring you already have some ideas about your future type of activity.

You should learn at least a little to understand bees, their life, family composition

At the same time, you can prepare the necessary equipment that will be useful for maintaining bee colonies. You can purchase it in specialized stores.

The best time to purchase bees is in the spring, when the gardens have finished blooming. At this time, warm weather will already set in, the families will get stronger, bring some nectar and pollen, and fill the honeycombs with brood.

In most cases, beekeepers are kind people; they will always be happy to tell you in detail about the bee colony they are purchasing and show you the queen. Thus, it will be possible to begin to consolidate theoretical skills with practice.

Creation and organization of an apiary from scratch

As soon as bee colonies appear, they should be placed in permanent places

As soon as bee colonies appear, they should be placed in permanent places. It is best to do this in the garden among the trees. Then it is forbidden to move the hives, because the scattered bees will not be able to find their home. This means that the layout of the hives should be thought out in advance.

There are a number of other subtleties that need to be taken into account:

The entrances of the houses should be turned to the south or east.
The hives are installed on stands or stakes intended for this purpose, so that the distance from the surface of the earth is from thirty to forty centimeters.
Ant nests throughout the area are eliminated and the grass is mowed.
The bee drinker is installed in advance. Bees performing an introductory flight over their territory will learn its location. Failure to install such an element in a timely manner will make it quite difficult for bees to get used to it.
It's good to have big scales. One of the hives is installed on them as a control. The weighing data will report the development of the bee colony and the number of bribes.
There is no need to disturb the bees on the first day after being brought to a new place. The family is excited and intensively flying around the area.

To organize care, an apiary journal is started, in which the results of the examination of each family, which has its own number, are entered.

The following information is entered into such a notebook:

the number of frames that are covered with bees;
the number of frames where the brood is located;
date of foundation installation, activity of its development;
how many frames were selected or added.

If the number of insects is not too large, then it is always possible to find a collection site for them

Hive location

If the number of insects is not too large, then it is always possible to find a collection site for them. But an important condition for finding hives is a place where there is pollen-bearing vegetation suitable for collecting honey. For obvious reasons, the apiary must be located as far as possible from highways, factory buildings and factories. Collection places should be located from the hives at a distance not exceeding one and a half to two kilometers.

The right solution is to organize protection from wind influences and hot sun rays. To do this, it is necessary to plant acacias or hawthorn along the perimeter of the territory, which will create a hedge. Hives should not be installed in open areas, in lowlands or on hills. An important feature is that the hives are not located on the “flight” of other bee colonies, and the paths of the bees do not cross highways or other obstacles.

The hives placed on stands are painted in different colors. This will help the bees accurately guess their home. The location of the hives is best done in a checkerboard pattern, installing them in attics or sheds. This will create additional protection for the family and make it possible to save yard space.

Bee hives should be spaced three to four meters apart in a row. The distance between two rows should be four to six meters.

Preparing for the bee season

During the winter season, you should read special manuals

A beginner should know how to distinguish worker bees from drones and identify the queen. When examining families, it is necessary to be able to distinguish the age of the brood.

Necessary equipment

It is necessary to take care of the presence of some important elements

You need to take care of purchasing some important tools and materials. By the start of the season you need to have:

frames by hive type;
wax;
barrier elements for entrances;
synthetic padding pillows, which you can purchase or make yourself;
a couple of guard boards for each hive;
several drawers to carry frames.

It is important to start breeding bees with the necessary equipment on hand. Keeping bees is a responsible business that will require:

gloves made of leather or rubber;
protective head mask, special suit;
smoker;
special chisel;
brush and honey extractor.

Taking up beekeeping is a big decision. In this matter, you cannot do without the recommendations of experienced mentors, which you should read regularly. Of all the tips, we can highlight the basic basics that will help a beginner become a confident bee breeder:

It is necessary to keep the strongest families in your apiary; the selection of parental pairs should be carried out systematically in order to improve productivity.
Renew honeycombs in nests regularly and disinfect the apiary.
Bees should be provided with the necessary amount of food so that they do not remain hungry, as this can cause their death.
It is necessary to maintain temperature and humidity levels in the nests.
When conditions are optimal, but the brood has died, replace the queen.
The natural instincts of bees must be supported to increase colony strength.
Prepare everything you need for work in advance.

If you decide to breed bees, you must be tested to ensure that you are not allergic to bee venom. In addition, the body will have to be subjected to significant physical stress. There is a lot of work to be done, but it is worth it.